Viya launches LTE on Saint Croix, Saint Thomas

Viya, the US Virgin Islands-based telecoms operator formed via the merger of Innovative Telephone and Choice Wireless in April this year, has switched on its brand new 4G LTE network on the two largest islands which make up the unincorporated US territory. A press statement quoted by The Virgin Islands Consortium stated: ‘The new Viya 4G LTE network is officially launching across Saint Croix and Saint Thomas, and will be the territory’s best network … AT&T and Sprint won’t be able to keep up.’ According to the report, the USD15 million network went live on 27 November.

TeleGeography notes that the new network supersedes the legacy LTE infrastructure previously operated by Choice Wireless. The former WiMAX operator reconfigured its 2500MHz networks to support LTE, and went on to launch LTE on Saint Thomas and Saint John in January 2015, and extending connectivity to Saint Croix in 2016.